The Secret to a Happy Marriage!

This couple claims clothes make all the difference

By Susan Toepfer

Happy Pair: Nancy and Donald Featherstone

Photograph: Kate Schermerhorn, courtesy of the Featherstone family

In her film After Happily Ever After, Kate Schermerhorn searches for the secret to wedded success by interviewing long-married pairs, including two nudists. The oddest tradition she uncovered: Donald Featherstone, a Massachusetts designer, and his wife, Nancy, have dressed alike every day for 33 years.

Nancy sews the clothes (she’s often influenced by Donald’s most famous creation, the plastic Pink Flamingo). But he has a say, too: “The one that gets to the closet first” chooses that day’s outfit, he explains onscreen.

A clue to their behavior: “We are always together, and that’s the only way we like to be,” Donald tells viewers. Even when he traveled on business, they stuck to their routine. “When I’d go to the airport to pick him up,” Nancy says, “I’d have the same thing on that he had on.” The ­payoff? “You felt closer,” he says.